By Erick Nyayiera
Nyabera Mixed Secondary School Principal Saul Wera Otieno has raised concerns over the high numbers of students making off to venture into fishing and the quarry business instead of learning in schools.
The Principal observed that the allure of easy money from the fishing activities taking place at the nearby beaches of Lake Victoria including the quarry sites are threatening the education of the male students.
Nyabera Mixed Secondary School in West Uyoma location of Rarieda Sub- County draws students who mostly come from the regions next the Lake Victoria beaches whose inhabitants are largely the fisher folk community who rely on the lake for their livelihoods. The area also has numerous quarry sites.
“We are witnessing a worrying trend where boys decide to stay away from school for over a month without trace. This happens when the fishing business is booming and they get engaged for good pay, you will only see them back when the lake is not doing better with fish. We also have several quarry sites near the school and you often find boys loading trucks for a pay which means you have to find them and take them back to class which has become part of our work as teachers,” Wera lamented.
The Principal also revealed the worrying issue of early pregnancies as school girls keep falling prey to fishermen who lure them into sexual acts with money and fish resulting to them staying out of school.
The Principal who was posted to the school from Maranda High School in 2018 has however raised the education standards of the school including steady rise in student population from 108 students to 398 students in 2021.
He has further improved school’s performance to now being able to send 19 students to the universities in the 2020 KCSE examination, alongside a substantial number getting admissions to Technical and Vocational Colleges, Medical Training Colleges and other tertiary institutions.
